Page:The Partisan (revised).djvu/216

 "Now, wherefore, gentlemen, do you bind the boy? Is it because he loves the old woman, his own mother? Oh, for shame! it's a cruel shame to do so! Will you not loose the cord?"

She hobbled over to the place where her son stood alone, and her bony fingers were for a moment busied with the thongs, as if she strove to release him. The prisoner himself twisted from her, and his repulse was not confined to his action.

"A'drat it, mother! have done. Say it out what you know, and done with it."

"What can you say, dame, in this matter?" inquired Singleton.

"It's my son you tie with ropes&mdash;it's a good son to me&mdash;will you not loose him?"

"He has done wrong, dame; he has left his post, and has neglected his duty."

"He came to see his mother&mdash;his old mother; to bring her comfort, for he had been long away, and she looked for him&mdash;she thought he had had wrong. Was there harm in this?"

"None, only as he had other duties, not less important, which he sacrificed for this. But say what you know."

She did so, and confirmed the fugitive's story; was heard patiently through a somewhat tedious narrative, in which her own feelings, and a strange show of love for the indifferent savage, were oddly blended with the circumstances which she told. Though unavailing to save him from punishment, the evidence of his mother, and her obvious regard, had the effect of modifying its severity. The court found him guilty, and sentenced him to the lash. Twenty lashes, and imprisonment in the discretion of the commander, were decreed as his punishment.

A long howl&mdash;a shriek of demoniac energy&mdash;from the old woman, as she heard the doom, rang in the ears of the party. Her long skinny finger was uplifted in vain threatenings, and her lips moved in vague adjurations and curses. Singleton regretted the necessity which made him sanction the decree, but example was necessary in the lax state of discipline at that time prevailing throughout the country. Marion, who was himself just and inflexible, had made him a disciplinarian.

"You will not say 'Yes' to this," cried the old woman to